Hot zone design for controlled growth to mitigate cracking in laser crystal growth

Heat Transfer Analysis and Design for Bulk Crystal Growth: Perspectives on the Bridgman Method

“…Gresho and Derby [96] were among the first to analyze induction heating in crystal growth systems; similar approaches have been widely applied by others [97][98][99][100][101][102]. Second, geometrical discontinuities of the susceptor, such as sharp edges or corners, lead to a bending of the electromagnetic fields that can strongly focus heating.…”

Analysis of chemical stress and the propensity for cracking during the vertical Bridgman growth of BaBrCl:Eu

“…Brice [9] presented one of the earliest of analyses of cracking of brittle, Czochralski-grown crystals by thermal effects and derived scaling laws meant to keep radial temperature gradients low enough to avoid a postulated, instantaneous "breaking strain." Subsequent analyses of cracking in crystal growth systems have generally adopted this idea that cracking arises when a critical strain or stress level set by the temperature field is exceeded; see, e.g., [10][11][12][13]. Stress and strain arising from thermal effects is significant in virtually all melt growth systems due to temperature gradients that occur during growth and over the cool-down period.…”

“…Instantaneous thermal stresses may promote cracking, as posited by the prior studies referred to above [9][10][11][12][13], and the important role of such thermal stresses on cracking has been documented in many prior experimental studies [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. However, a solid can also experience residual stresses remaining in the material after the original cause has been removed [24] that can delay cracking to during unloading or processing.…”